(a) the existing and future action plan for creation of railway track capacity essential for
passenger and freight rail transport in the country;
(b) the analytical details of the required track capacity rakes, passenger coaches and the
present status of demand and supply in this regard; and
(c) the year-wise details of progress made in construction of railway tracks during the last
three years?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS ( SHRI LALU PRASAD )
(a) to (c) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the Sabha.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 217 BY DR.
SATYANARAYAN JATIYA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 29-11-2007 REGARDING CREATION OF NEW
RAILWAY TRACK CAPACITY
(a) to (c) : In order to carry additional freight and passenger traffic in future, Railways
have on hand 272 track capacity works, which on completion would add 20,852 kilometers to
the Broad Gauge system. The estimated throw forward cost of these works is approximately Rs
55,000 Cr.
A substantial amount of traffic moves on the High density routes viz. the ones which connect
the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, and the Delhi – Gauhati
route. Railways have already announced construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors
between JNPT-Tughlakabad (1483 kms) and Sonenagar-Ludhiana, (to be later extended to the deep
sea port of Kolkatta) (1279 Kms) at a cost of more than Rs.28,000 crores to give relief to
two of the densely saturated routes viz. Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes. In addition,
feasibility studies have been ordered on four other corridors –
(i) North – South (Delhi –
Chennai);
(ii) East – West (Mumbai – Kolkotta) ;
(iii) South – East (Vijayawada – Kharagpur)
and
(iv) South – South ( Chennai – Goa).
In addition, Railway proposes to augment its track capacity in XI Plan by ~ 15,500 kilometers,
including 2000 kilometers of new lines, 3500 kilometers of doubling and 10,000 kilometers of
gauge conversion.
The revenue earning freight traffic in the XI Five year plan period is expected to increase
from 728 Million tons in 2006-07 to 1100 Million tons in 2011-12. The corresponding freight
output is expected to increase from 475 billion ton kilometers in 2006-07 (prov) to 707 billion
ton kilometers in 2011-12. In order to cater to the projected freight traffic, it is expected
that 62000 wagons would be required during the XI Plan. Railways will also require to induct
1800 electric and 1800 diesel locomotives for carrying the projected traffic in the XI plan.
In addition to enhancing the capacity of the existing diesel and electric locomotive
manufacturing units, railways are also going in for setting up a diesel locomotive factory
at Marhowra and electric loco factory at Madhepura which will produce 150 and 120 locos per
year respectively.
Since capacity augmentation takes time, Railways have taken immediate steps to enhance the
throughput by increasing the carrying capacity of wagons by 6 tons on most of the routes and
by 8 tons on selected routes and also strengthen the track, bridges and allied structures. In
addition, 28 heavy mineral routes with over 6900 route kilometers have been further identified
for implementation of 25 Ton Axle load. Also on selected routes, double stack containers
trains have been permitted to further enhance the throughput per train.
Railways also plan to induct wagons of better design, higher capacity, longer life and low
on maintenance.
The passenger traffic in the XI Five Year Plan is expected to increase from 6242 million
passengers in 2006-07 (RE) to 8400 million in 2011-12. The corresponding passenger output
is expected to increase from 700 billion passenger kilometers to 880 billion passenger
kilometers.
In order to cater to this increase in passenger traffic, it is expected that 22500 coaches
would be required during the XI Five year Plan, implying a yearly requirement of 4500 coaches.
In order to meet this requirement, the production capacities of the existing units – Integral
Coach Factory, Perumbur and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala - are being enhanced to 1500 and
1400 coaches per annum respectively from the present capacity of 1000 coaches per annum each.
Further, a new coach factory is also being planned to be set up at Rai Bareily to bridge the
shortfall in the requirement and production capacities.
Railways have constructed a total of 4084 kilometers of track in the last three years. The
details are as under:
(All figures in Kilometers) Category New Lines Doubling Gauge Conversion Total
2004-05 150 779 282 1211
2005-06 180 744 231 1155
2006-07 250 1082 386 1718
Total 580 2605 899 4084